A Collection of Black Roses
by EssTheDreamer
Summary: A collection of drabbles in the Tom Riddle JR/Ginerva Weasley world, or just featuring them as single characters. All of varying AU's, some canon. Some of these may expand into full-fledged stories, if I feel there is a bigger story to be told, and some of these may be one-shots.
1. One: Ginny Weasley and the Horcruxes

**Prompt One, for the Gin n Tonic Winter Challenge: (Ginny + Any Horcrux)**

 **Title:** Ginny Weasley and the Horcruxes

 **Prompt One:** Ginny + Any Horcrux; Week One of The Gin 'n' Tonic Holiday Challenge

 **Summary:** The war leaves Ginny empty, and she looks to find the end from the beginning – Tom Riddle's Horcruxes.

 **Type:** Just a drabble…I think? I don't know if it's long enough to qualify as a one-shot, so…it's whatever you want it to be, haha. Hope everyone enjoys. Oh, and I don't know if Harry kept the Horcruxes after destroying them (most likely not), but in this fic, he did.

 **Can Also Be Found On:** tumblr under essthewriter . tumblr . com (remove the spaces)

* * *

 **After** the _end_ , the end of the war, for some reason, Ginny's soul feels empty. Empty like she can't feel, empty like the world stopped spinning, empty like she's just floating by, just plain empty.

Empty as if half of her soul was gone, gone _, gone._

* * *

She asks Harry if he still has the Horcruxes after destroying them, and when he nods yes, she asks for them on impulse, as if she can't control herself anymore and is just a witness to her actions like a ghost.

"Why?" asks Harry, brows furrowed, as he scans the Daily Prophet.

Ginny looks at him. Her eyes are dark, dark _,_ _dark,_ like the empty pits of _his_ soul.

"You know why. Just…please?" Ginny's voice cracks a bit at the "please", similar to that of a fissure in the Earth.

Harry looks at her, and an unknown emotion passes through his eyes. Ginny is too tired to analyze his emotions, so she doesn't question, doesn't think more on it.

He doesn't answer her question, and goes on to talk about Hermione's not-so-secret relationship with Draco Malfoy, so she takes it as a no.

* * *

Later that evening, however, she receives an owl package, with a small note attached to it. Almost like a 6th sense, she can just tell exactly what it is. She eagerly grabs the package from Harry's new snowy owl, Tonredmus, and gives him a spare owl treat, before taking a look at the short note.

 _Keep this, I have no need for it. Just make sure I never see it again. Take care, Gin. I'll see you at the Burrow ~H.P._

It's written in Harry's familiar scrawl, so familiar that at first it makes Ginny wonder how her 11 year old adoring self would have reacted to this. Instead of throwing it in the rubbish bin, she grabs the nearest book and puts the note neatly inside, as if preserving this little bit of familiarity.

Then, Ginny wonder's what Harry thinks her reasons were for wanting the Horcruxes.

She wonders if she will _ever_ get over Tom Marvolo Riddle. Not Voldemort, but Tom Marvolo Riddle. It's as if his name was etched into her skin, like it was etched onto the diary in gold lettering, always there, always permanent.

She wonders if she can at least expel this feeling of _nothing_.

She thinks she can definitely try.

* * *

When she goes to open the actual brown cardboard box, her hands are shaking. Maybe the rest of her is shaking, too, like her brain can't catch up to what she is doing, but she is still riding on her impulses. She doesn't even _know_ what exactly she's looking for, and she doesn't even _know_ if she will come out from this better … or worse.

She's worried she may start crying, but for what she doesn't know. Definitely not for the cruel being that possessed her. But maybe, just _maybe_ for the innocent boy turned monster, and for the innocent girl turned emotionless shell. Maybe for the loved ones lost in the war, maybe for Fred, maybe for Teddy's parents, maybe for everything that happened since the day Tom Marvolo Riddle was left alone in the cold steps of the Orphanage.

Merlin knows that there are too many things to cry for, too little tears remaining from in her eyes.

So, she doesn't cry, but her eyes do sting a little bit.

* * *

She takes out Hufflepuff's cup first, and looks at it, trying to see what was so special about it that is caught _his_ eye, enough to put a piece of his soul in it like he did to Ginny. The color is not as shiny as what Ginny presumed it looked like in its golden age (no pun intended), but the carvings are definitely elegant. But, it doesn't look like much, more like a trophy cup, like the one _he_ won for "special services", or like the one her Aunt has on display at her house, rather than the epitome of evil and all things dark and Tom Marvolo Riddle.

As she holds it, she still feels nothing, not at all. She doesn't know what she expected to feel. Maybe remorse, maybe regret? Maybe even a small joy that he's gone, gone, _gone_ now? She doesn't know, and she doesn't feel.

 _What else is new?_

She goes through all the other Horcruxes, looking and touching every curve and crevice, but still, she feels nothing.

She didn't expect anything from the diary, far from it since it's the reason she got into this whole mess. But when she gets to the diary, it all changes _._ (For the better, or for the worse, she doesn't know).

Almost like the cell diffusion process Hermione tried to explain to her once, she feels her adoration, her fear, her hopes, her dreams, her _innocence,_ all from her first year, all pouring into her from the diary, and she can feel, _feel_ for the first time in what seems like forever.

(It's like lightning struck her with a bolt of emotion.)

And that's when she cries. She doesn't know when she started crying, but she knows that she is now, and the tears are flowing down her face like an endless river.

She cries for the girl she used to be, she cries for who she is now, and she cries for the future.

Maybe she even cries for Tom Marvolo Riddle, and the man he could've been but the monster he became.

Maybe, just maybe.

* * *

 _Teardrops of salt crystals_

 _Stream down her porcelain face_

 _And leave trails to_

 _The future_

 _On her marble cheeks_

* * *

 **AN:**

I tried to go with a simplistic writing style, to see how it turns out. I'm not too proud of how it turned out, but I think it's a good first start. Tell me how you think it turned out, and some possible feedback on how to improve, too?

The strikeouts show the unstable state of Ginny's mind/emotional state after the war, something that I think everyone who saw the death and gory scenes would experience for a while after the war. Ginny (and Harry, too) most of all, since she's been in it since she was 11, with the diary.

Wait, never mind, the strikeouts are not showing up here on ffnet. :C, aww, they really added to the message. Oh well, it'll be on tumblr under EssTheWriter, as well, (under essthewriter . tumblr . com = remove spaces). (wait, I don't know if the strikeouts will be on tumblr or not either. oh well, then just ignore this part if so)

I've also decided to include a little poem of sorts at the end of all of my one-shots from now on, if I'm in the poetic mood.

Hope you liked reading this, and here's to the beginning of the Gin 'n' Tonic Holiday Challenge! :D

See y'all next week for a response to Prompt #2.

(lol, I'm so hardcore Dramione that even my Gin 'n' Tonic fics have it, haha, sorry about that)

 _PS: Kudos to all those who can figure out what Tonredmus stands for. Think about it from Harry's point of view, and remember, this is kind of angsty and tragedy-ish. (If still no clue, just ask me. :D)_

 _Also, my original idea or this turned into a multi-chapter plot, so I might decide to actually post it one day._

 ** _Reviews are the warmth in the winter, favorites are the chocolate drops in your cup, and follows are the snowflakes in the sky._**


	2. Two: The Beginning

**Prompt Two, of the Gin n Tonic Holiday Challenge: (Alternate Universe)**

 **Title:** The Beginning

 **Prompt Two:** Alternate Universe; Week Two of The Gin 'n' Tonic Holiday Challenge

 **Summary:** In a world where Tom Riddle is of the year of 1991-1998.

 **Type:** Again, its halfway between drabble and one-shot, so I'll let y'all decide.

* * *

Fate, my friends, is fickle. But a simple decision, such as a birth date, can change the _entire_ path of history.

When Fate decided that 1926 was not the appropriate time, but 1989, for Thomas Marvolo Riddle to be born, she changed an entire universe. Whether she sentenced the world to its very end, or its very beginning, we have yet to know.

* * *

 _1_ _st_ _Year_

* * *

Tom Riddle sat on the train, all alone in his train compartment. He was given some galleons from Dumbledore so he could 'enjoy' himself on the train, but he was intent on saving it, so he hadn't gotten any snacks.

Just then, a boy decided to enter his compartment.

His forehead shone brightly, and there seemed to be some sort of birthmark, a lightning shaped one, but once Tom blinked, it was gone.

The boy, Tom noticed, had brilliant green eyes, and his hair was a messy case. Tom himself had a green eye, on his left side, the other a blue, and he was surprised to see his brilliant green, like Tom's own, perhaps a bit lighter.

The boy, who seemed to register Tom just then, looked uncertain before reaching out his hand.

"Hello, I'm Harry. Harry Potter. What's your name?"

Tom took his hand, and shook it, not knowing that this would begin a tale of friendship and danger and darkness and power and fame and everything in between.

"I'm…" Tom debated telling him his muggle last name, he knew that some wizards held animosity towards those from a muggle background. Taking a deep breath, he finished his statement. "I'm Tom Riddle."

"Cool. My mum's a muggle born," replied Harry, and this gets some of the tension off of Tom's back.

"That's nice. The muggle world's not that great. I'm and orphan, you know, and orphanages are not that great."

Harry was about to say something, when two platinum haired kids walked in, one male, and the other female.

"I can't believe father expects me to be friends with Pansy!"

"Are you kidding me, Daph? Father expects me to _marry_ her! You're better off than-" The boy cut off his speech noting that he had an audience.

Harry and Tom looked at the boy and "Daph" expectantly.

The girl took the initiative, and smiled warmly at them. "Oh, sorry, can we sit here?"

Harry nodded, and Tom shrugged.

"I'm Daphne Greengrass. That's Malfoy, uh, Draco, I guess, technically."

"Stop butchering my name, Daph. Its Draco Malfoy, ignore her. Sometimes I wish we weren't cousins," sighed the boy, Draco.

Tom recognized the names, Greengrass, Malfoy, along with Potter, were all pureblood names, although Harry seemed to be a half-blood.

"I'm Harry Potter, and that's Tom Riddle," said Harry, motioning towards Tom.

"Riddle? Don't think I've heard that name before," said Draco. Tom held his breath, waiting for the hurtful comments and steeling his heart.

"Oh, you're a muggleborn. At least you don't have to be related to about 99% of the school. I don't know why father harps on the Weasley's so much if we've got just the same amount of family," said Draco, extending a hand to Tom.

Tom was surprised, he'd heard that the Malfoy family was one of the more prejudiced families out there, and Greengrass as well.

Daphne snorted, and then smirked at the look on Tom's face. "What, were you expecting us to call you a mudblood and throw you out the train? That's our parents, not us, sorry. Besides, unless you're an obnoxious Gryffindor or an enemy, we have no real reason to insult you."

Just then, adding onto the crowd of people in their compartment, came a crying girl with bushy hair and another with fiery waves following her.

"Hermione, don't cry, I know my brother is a prat. I've hexed him to kingdom come, and there are probably spiders coming out of his nose, so don't worry."

Said girl, Hermione, sat down next to Draco, practically on top of him, and continued crying.

The red haired girl, looked at the audience and explained Hermione's tears. "My git of a brother said that muggleborns like her don't deserve to come to Hogwart's, all because she was showing him how to properly color a rat."

Tom had seen red at the statement that the girl's brother thought she wasn't worthy to come to Hogwarts. Like the times at the orphanage when the kids would bully him and his accidental magic would come out, he managed to make the lights in the compartment flicker on and off.

The girl who noticed, raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, I gave him a couple of punches to last him a week, not to mention a spider-bogey curse, perfectly tailored to him."

Tom's magic stopped, and Tom flashed the girl a smile, appreciating what she'd done to help the muggleborn girl. He'd be sure to find out exactly who this girl's brother was.

Daphne exchanged a look with Draco, and Draco seemed to portray a message back to her questioning eyes.

Daphne went to the girl and calmed her down with reassuring words, and once Hermione had calmed down enough, she explained herself. "All I said was that he wasn't performing the spell correctly and that I could help him. I'm Hermione Granger, anyway."

Even with the girl being muggle, Tom recognized her last name belonging to incredible dentists who were at the top of the medical field.

"You're a Granger?" asked Tom.

Hermione blushed, not expecting to have been found out at a magical school. She sighed. "I suppose so, nothing too important, believe me. They're regular as can be, really."

Draco looked confused. "Is Granger equal to Malfoy in the real world?" Daphne rolled her eyes and whacked him with her wand for bringing out his last name.

Hermione smiled at him and explained that in the muggle world, she supposed it would be, but she didn't know exactly.

As she talked, Tom discovered that Hermione had done the same that he had, she had read every book she could and purchased as many books as she could, even the wizarding pureblood family books, to learn about the wizarding world. Tom couldn't buy them all, but he could speed read, so he'd read as much as he could to prepare, and then read the ones he had to buy for the school year at home.

While Hermione and Draco were talking about whether or not a Malfoy ancestor had a fling with Queen Elizabeth, Tom turned his attention to the red headed girl and asked her who she was.

"Oh, I'm Ginerva Weasley. Call me whatever, but if I don't like it, I'll just hex you. I'm a bit ashamed to call Ron, the one who insulted Hermione my older brother."

Tom nodded, and decided that she was an okay person, and quite honest, which he liked. They all were.

Soon, they were all laughing over jokes and imitations of their respective family members, friends, and acquaintances.

The six first years spent the rest of the train ride discussing what they expected, and before they knew it, they had arrived at Hogwarts, and so began the story of the Court of Six.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I can't wait till winter break where I can just write, write, write, and write.

I'll answer any questions people have about this, and in case you were wondering, I won't write in this particular universe, but I _will_ this idea, mainly because I have a couple things I want to develop, and the new multi-chap will probably be a more edited version of this.

But, this is the basic idea, so I hope this interests you all.

Now, questions:

I imagine that if Tom Riddle was in Harry's time, they might be friends, especially if the dead family thing is nonexistent and no one was there to warn him away from Tom. Not to mention, dark!Harry is an interesting thing to write, and I figured this would be a nice way to develop this.

The reason Ginny is in their year is because I made Ron a year older, and Percy's twin. Why? The other option was to make him Ginny's twin because I wanted Ginny in their year, but I didn't want to do that to Ginny, as in this story, Ron is meanandrude!Ron. Ron is a favorite character, but I'm not good at writing him like J.K Rowling/Amazing Queen does, so I'm sorry if this story wounds you. It hurts me, too. If in the other story that will build off this idea I can find a way to make him accepting of the dark side, I'll try to bring him in, because I've rarely read dark!Ron stories.

Also, I imagine in the beginning, Tom was shy and subdued and then he became king with a bang, and he would believe that he was a muggleborn till later on. I hope that explains some things Also, Tom in this world also still has a bad upbringing and a hatred of orphanages.

See you all for Week Three with a songfic (or a fancast)! :D

(lol, the hinted Dramione and Gin 'n' Tonic, haha) (my two favorites ships) (sorrynotsorry for putting it in here)

 _ **Reviews are the marshmallows in hot chocolate, follows are the cream in your cake, and favorites are the dollops of whipped cream.**_


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